Copycat Panera Breakfast Baked Egg Souffle

We love the breakfast egg souffles at Panera Bread so I decided to try and copy them. Most recipes I found use crescent dough. I tried it and hated it, they were nothing like Panera's. I experimented with (baked) croissants from the bakery at my grocery and it's pretty close to the original. If you have access to croissant dough I'm sure it might be even better, but there's none in my small town.

My husband can eat one of these on his own. I usually eat half of one. If you have it left over it's great at room temperature for lunch with a salad.

I use two 6 inch Pyrex pie plates for this. They are commonly available. Line them with parchment paper. Press it down into them and trim excess around rim. Crease it like pleats to make the paper stay. This will allow the souffles to slide out easily even if some of the egg soaks through the crust.

3

Roughly chop the spinach.

4

Whisk the eggs and cream together.

5

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

6

Slice the croissants like for a sandwich. If the are pretty thick I slice them into 3 pieces. You don't need to be neat. Place them into the pie pans with the crust side up. This keeps the outside from over-browning. Piece it to fill in spots. Press down. This gives you a light crust like Panera. I tried crescent roll dough but it wasn't anything like the original.

7

Pour your mixture into the shells and bake for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set. If it's getting too brown, cover with foil.

8

Note - vary the ingredients to imitate the one you want. Start with the eggs and cream, then cheese of your choice and fillings you like such as artichoke and spinach, ham and cheese, etc.